Penny Farthing Inn

My husband and I just returned from a three day stay in St. Augustine. When I was looking on the internet for a place to stay I chose Penny Farthing for the Victorian décor and the reasonable price. I could not be happier!!! The B&B was quaint, quiet, and in a great location. We were greeted like old friends! The room was all that was described on the web site and then some. So very comfortable and so very clean! Each breakfast was amazing and was served so very promptly. I loved the fact that we had access to the dining area during the evening for tea. We even had complimentary brandy in our room! I cannot say enough about how wonderful and pleasant the owners and the staff were. I have stayed in many, many hotels, motels, and B&B’s in my day and never was I hugged upon leaving. That is just how genuine and nice these people are.

Absolutely amazing. My Fiancé and I have a new tradition.. The family is by far the sweetest and most lovely and accommodating I’ve ever experienced… can’t wait to be back next year. Thanks again for the love and hugs xoxo

My fiancée and I decided to spend my birthday in St. Augustine. We found The Penny Farthing Bed and Breakfast Inn to be very quaint and cozy. Our hosts, were very nice and accommodating. Marie went out of her way to make breakfast for us as we have specific food allergies. It is within walking distance to the historical downtown area and there is plenty of parking. Our room was great and very comfortable. We had a fantastic time and we will definitely stay at the Penny Farthing on our next visit!

Was a nice weekend at the inn. Nice food and nice afternoon wine and snack hour. The hosts were great and the place is very quiet at night.

Was greeted by Marie when we arrived. She was so gracious and welcoming. We were immediately offered refreshments and wine! The home is Victorian style. If you’re an Anglophile you will love it!
We stayed in The Buckingham Room. Very cozy and private.
Breakfast in the morning was Eggs Benedict, my favorite! They were fresh and delicious! And served promptly when we sat down.
I would highly recommend Penny Farthing for a stay in St Augustine!

Fantastic stay! We loved hanging out on the deck with a glass of wine and hot, fresh scones and cookies and — oh, the amazing, delicious breakfasts! The best Innkeepers any where in the world! So warm and gracious.
Perfect location to walk anywhere.
Thank you for an unforgettable birthday!

What a perfect gem situated out of the midst of chaos, to enjoy quiet relaxing evenings on one of the many porches, yet close enough to walking distance to everything wonderful St. Augustine has to offer. The rooms were charming and decorated with period Victorian antique furniture, taking one back to an era long gone. The wine and desserts offered in the afternoons, and the amazing breakfast served in the morning are just a couple of examples of the many special touches that made our stay so enjoyable. This being said, the staff Dave and Betty, (Marie, who we unfortunately didn’t get the pleasure of meeting) truly made our stay from the level of just another place to sleep, to a personal welcoming environment, where from the first moment we arrived, we felt more like returning long time friends, and not just another guest passing through. I highly recommend.

Me and my girlfriend went to the Penny Farthing Inn for my birthday weekend. The house is very nice and comfortable, and the staff is very friendly and welcoming! The room we stayed in was very comfortable, including a fireplace for cooler nights. The breakfasts were consistently delicious, and the atmosphere was always very friendly. We are definitely thinking of coming back in the future!

Charming, comfortable, clean and very welcoming. Penny Farthing Inn was a pleasure to stay in. We stayed in Penny’s Attic and The Buckingham and both were decorated nicely and well kept, but what will truly make me return is the family that runs this B&B. Matthew is friendly, polite and genuine in making sure you feel welcome. Marie was sweet, accommodating and warm. We felt as though we were visiting family. The house is large with a lovely front porch and a spacious patio deck as the common outdoor eating area in the back. There are jasmine vines that decorate the lattices and each table is covered with linen and fresh flowers in very pretty tea cups. The ambiance is relaxing and casual. I could’ve stayed in the B&B alone without sightseeing the town and have been perfectly content.

We stayed in the York room which I found elegant. It wasn’t in the main part of the house but off the patio. We found it quiet enough although the walls seemed thin in the bathroom. Overall, it seemed private enough even with the French doors.
The host had British hospitality. I enjoyed the Benedict breakfast and the wine that was setup in the afternoon to sip on at leisure. I thought the local handmade soap was a nice accent.
The location was great. It was within a nice walking distance of the hubbub of old town but enough off the beaten path for relaxation.

We really enjoyed our stay here. We went for a Friday /​Saturday night stay during the Night of Lights. The house was beautifully decorated for Christmas. There is hot water for tea 24/​7, and a really nice snack display in the afternoon with cake, fresh vegetables, and cheese and crackers. Wine is also available from the afternoon into the evening. Every room has two small glasses and some sherry in a beautiful glass decanter. All of the owners and staff were friendly and suggested local places for drinks and food. They also let me bring a breakfast tray upstairs to my husband one morning because he wasn’t feeling good. Breakfast was excellent both days. The first day was bread pudding with a piece of sausage and a yogurt parfait. The second day was sausage quiche with potatoes and fresh fruit.
We stayed in the Victoria room. It has it’s own private balcony with two rocking chairs and a hammock. We liked sitting out here and listening to the church bells. You can also see the towers of the Lightner museum from this room, but the immediate street view is of an office building. The room was mostly clean, but unfortunately there was some dust in the corners and on the baseboards and the walls had small holes every so often where a picture or something else once was there. The wallpaper really needed to be updated. Also, there were a lot of knickknacks on the tables in the room which made it difficult for me to lay out my things. These things are small, and while they would by no means prevent me from returning to the Penny Farthing Inn they did detract from the overall appeal of the room.

This place is WONDERFUL! It reminded us of the B & B we stayed at in England. We arrived a little before check in time and when we called, we received a call right back that Marie was on her way to let us in. Since there is ample outdoor furniture, we were able to use our computers and wait right on the front patio.
Marie gave us a tour of the place, offered us a movie from a large selection of DVD and games and then we met more of her hospitable family every time we were in the common areas.
The room itself was LOVELY! We stayed in the tree house and I highly recommend it if you want something romantic. We sat out on our private balcony in the evening and enjoyed the thunderstorm.
There was wine and snacks and cookies available all afternoon as well as hot tea to stay or to go. In the morning, they accommodated food allergies and made a delicious breakfast.
I can’t say enough great things about this place and the hospitality. They literally have everything you would need an go above and beyond. We will be staying here anytime we are passing though. We loved it!

We just got back from a relaxing long weekend at the Penny Farthing, Marie and family made us feel at home and we really enjoyed our stay.
Our room, The York, was the smallest, but perfect for just the two of us. The bathroom was really quite large complete with a jacuzzi tub. Right outside of the York is the common deck, but we were frequently the only ones out there sipping on wine or reading a book.
After trekking all over town in the mornings it was nice to come back in the afternoons, sit out on the deck and enjoy some of the wine and snacks set out.
The location was perfect, close enough to the main attractions that we never used our car.
Breakfast, was delightful. Eggs Benedict, french toast, and quiche on the three days we were there. It was hard coming home to just yogurt. We would be so full that for lunch we ended up just grabbing a sandwich to split at a deli so we could still have room for dinner.
I can’t say enough great things about my first B&B experience.

Our family weekend was filled with many activities including a most important graduation from Flager College. We chose a bed and breakfast, and most particularily Penny Farthing Inn with a roof top deck for entertaining, because we wanted all the comforts of home. Oh my goodness, what a disappointment! We prearranged to have the key in the room because of our late arrival (yes, we missed the afternoon cocktail party), but we arrived around six with no greeting from our hostess who was fully informed that we would have been traveling all day. No one was there to greet us and provide information about our stay… there wasn’t even a fruit basket or a plate of cookies in our suite.
The lack of hospitality continued when we were informed by phone that breakfast was served no earlier than 9 AM and there would be no accommodations for anything at our 8 AM departure for the graduation event. When we arrived back at the Inn with our guests for our roof top luncheon, we discovered to our dismay that the room had not been attended… the bed was unmade, used towels were in the bath (but there was an tip envelope from the maid). Also, seating was sparse because the cushions had not been placed on much of the outdoor furniture. When we inquired about this later, the owner just laughed and said that the maid must have simply missed us.
I must mention that our shower was ill-​equipped as well… we found no bath products save a couple of bars of soap and samples of shampoo and conditioner encased in cardboard.
Although others were in the dining room on the morning of our 8:30 AM departure, we were only able to get a cup of coffee in to-​go cups with somewhat of a «rush» out the door (Could she have been expecting a request for monetary compensation???)
I wrote to the Penny Farthing Inn when I returned home to discuss my disappointment, but am still waiting for a reply. Such hospitality!!!
I cannot fathom why anyone would want to pay a premium price for such a lack of accommodations.

Very nice place, girly/​romantic, close to shops and historical sites. Breakfast was very nice and they leave out wine, sherry, and tea at all times, coffee and orange juice in the morning. Nice DVD collection as well.

This is a great little bed n’ breakfast in St. Augustine. It’s just a block or two west of the tourist hubs, which means you don’t feel overwhelmed by the writhing masses of poorly-​dressed humanity, nor do you feel like you’ll have to walk forever in the searing Florida heat to reach them. The owners are very nice and accommodating people with delightful attitudes and accents. We had two very tasty breakfasts there, even though they tried to sneak ham into my croissant (I’m a vegetarian) on the first day. Luckily, my fiancée spotted it just in time, selflessly devouring it before I could. She’s so thoughtful.
We stayed in the ‘Dawn’ room, which comes with its own little balcony area with a cute little swinging bench and chairs. It’s beautiful, really. What makes it even better is that swing is where I proposed to the love of my life (she said ‘yes,’ of course, which is why this review is positive and upbeat, rather than deranged howling). The room itself has a nice whirlpool bathtub which we filled with an ungodly amount of bubbles, as required by the Clichéd Tourist Mistakes guidebook we follow religiously. There’s also a lot of cute knick-​knacks and paintings and such. It really feels like a home, rather than an impersonal cookie-​cutter suite.
Food’s tasty, people are nice, rooms are pretty, location is perfect. What more do you want? Go take a romantic vacation already.

The place is so charming and romantic. Each room is supplied with some nice English sherry, and if that is now enough, you can go downstairs for a cup of tea, a glass of whine, or port. The owner is incredibly sweet. I felt like I was visiting England, really.
The location is very good, right in the old town area. Breakfast is incredibly delightful. The bathroom had a jacuzzi and was very spacious, huge pillow-​drowned bed… and some nice DVDs to watch.
Check out my pics. of the rooms… We stayed at «The Dawn».

I agree with everyone who wrote previously. Dave and Marie are amazing and so is everyone else who worked here. The breakfast was amazing, the Attic was wonderful, and we extended our stay an extra night. Dave and Marie have so many touches that added to our stay. The journal in the attic is so romantic and amazing (leave it for others to enjoy). Ask about the military men in the attic. They have quite the history. The jacuzzi really helped us both unwind. They offer advice on places to go and things to see. We hadn’t stayed at a b&b before and thoroughly enjoyed it. We felt like family. We will definitely return to st Augustine and the penny farthing.

I second the first review. Our family took up two rooms for two nights. We loved the location which was just near enough but not on top of the noisiest areas. The owners are extremely attentive and concerned with your comfort. The shabby chic vintage charm is excellent and it’s a lovely respite after a long walking day. If you don’t mind steps, Penny’s attic room is tops. It’s literally a little private apartment with a huge modern walk-​in shower as well as a jetted tub and a private crows nest type porch with a covered spot. They offer a lovely breakfast but if it’s not for you they will cook up something more ordinary. Coffee, tea, wine and sherry are always around for your enjoyment. You bet this will be our St. Augustine B&B.

This is a wonderful little Bed & Breakfast next to the Lightner Museum. You can park your car behind the house and walk for the remainder of your stay. The owners are friendly and cook a mean breakfast — we had amazing croissants and fresh fruit when we stayed there. There is also a tray set up in the common area with several bottles of wine for your enjoyment. I stayed in «The Dawn» with its own private entrance from the porch. The room was cozy and we loved the added privacy of the separate entrance. The Penny Farthing Inn is one block from King Street in the heart of the historic district. I loved being able to wander through the streets as we were so close to everything. They also offer romantic packages for an extra charge. My husband surprised me with wine, roses, chocolate-​covered strawberries and a carriage ride through town (all included in their romance package). The Penny Farthing is also reasonably priced and they offer great specials. When we went we paid for Friday and Saturday and got Thursday for ½ price. It was a great vacation and the next time we go back, we’ll definitely stay there.